This section is intended to introduce the reader to various aspects of art that may be related to various aspects of the present invention, which are described and/or claimed below. This discussion is believed to be helpful in providing the reader with background information to facilitate a better understanding of the various aspects of the present invention. Accordingly, it should be understood that these statements are to be read in this light, and not as admissions of prior art.
In some cases, it is desirable to place electronics in subsea locations, such as for projects involving the recovery of oil and gas from subsea reservoirs. The electronics can be placed in an oil filled housing which has some advantages but often suffers from additional qualification procedures for the electronic components. An alternative is to place the electronics in a gas filled subsea housing that can maintain the electronics at atmospheric pressure. Some types of electronics inherently create relatively large amounts of heat that must be dissipated. Examples of such heat generating electronics include subsea power electronics, such as those components used for controlling and providing variable frequency electric power to subsea and downhole equipment such as pumps and compressors.
An alternative to placing such electronics subsea is to locate the variable frequency power converters, or variable speed drives (VSDs), in a surface facility such as on a platform or a vessel such as a floating production storage and offloading vessel (FPSO). However, in cases where independent control of multiple pumps and/or compressors with topside VSDs is desirable, each pump and compressor will need to have its own dedicated conductors, which usually amount to three electrical conductors for each pump and compressor running all the way to the platform or FPSO.